Harry S. Ashmore Papers, 1947-1961

Harry S. Ashmore Papers, 1947-1961 UALR.MS.0178

UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture
401 President Clinton Avenue
Little Rock, AR, 72201
archives@ualr.edu

Arrangement

Scope and Content

This collection contains the correspondence of Harry S. Ashmore, 1947-1961, including printed materials, speeches, and newsclippings. Ashmore corresponded with a wide range of individuals in Arkansas and around the country. Letters frequently discuss African American students integrating Central High School in Little Rock, 1957-1959. Correspondents include J. William Fulbright, Brooks Hays, Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, and other prominent individuals.

Correspondence concerning Ashmore's work at the Arkansas Gazette discusses editors, reporters, hiring, Neiman Fellows, complaints, and newspaper strikes. Prominent correspondents include Ralph McGill, David Brinkley, Hodding Carter, Virginius Dabney, Cecil Roberts, Barry Bingham, and Liz Carpenter. Ashmore also wrote to Arkansas businessmen, educators, political figures and ordinary citizens.

For related collections, consult the Arkansas Business Files, 1819-1981, UALR.MS.0187.

This collection was originally numbered H-37 and is part of the J. N. Heiskell Historical Collection, courtesy of the Arkansas Gazette Foundation.

Biographical Note

Harry Scott Ashmore was born 1916 July 27 in Greenville, South Carolina. He received his bachelor's degree from Clemson Agricultural College in 1937 and was a Neiman Fellow of journalism at Harvard University, 1941-42. Ashmore married Barbara Edith Laier on 1940 June 2 and they had one daughter, Anne Rogers Ashmore. He worked as a journalist in North and South Carolina and later served in the U.S. Army rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. After World War II, he served as editor of the Charlotte News in North Carolina before coming to the Arkansas Gazette in 1947.

Ashmore served as head of the editorial page of the Gazette for two years. He was promoted to executive editor in 1948 and served in that capacity until leaving the paper in 1959. From 1955 to 1956, Ashmore took a leave of absence to work in the presidential campaign of Adlai Stevenson. From 1960 to 1963, he served as editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia Britannica. And from 1969 to 1974, Ashmore was senior fellow and president of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.

Over the years he wrote, co-authored, or was editor of a dozen books including: Arkansas: A Bicentennial History (1978); The Negro and the Schools (1954); An Epitaph for Dixie (1958); Civil Rights and Wrongs: A Memoir of Race and Politics, 1944-96 (1997); and The Other Side of Jordan (1960). Ashmore received mnay awards in his lifetime, including the Pulitzer Prize. He died in Valle Verda, California, on 1998 January 20.

Restrictions

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is available for viewing at the Arkansas Studies Institute.

Conditions Governing Use

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17-U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The person using this material is liable for any infringement.

Copyright for correspondence in the collections belongs to those correspondents or their beneficiaries. Persons wanting to re-use those materials are advised to obtain permission from copyright holders.

Administrative Information

Citation Notes

Bibliographic citation:

Harry S. Ashmore Papers, 1947-1961, UALR.MS.0178. UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture, Arkansas Studies Institute, Little Rock.

Footnote or Endnote info:

Description of item, location of item in the collection, Harry S. Ashmore Papers, 1947-1961, UALR.MS.0178.